English Chestnut sounds great. The ebony may make it too dark where it will show dust etc. I totally understand about the orange look that unstained red oak has because that is what mine look like. It is so difficult to find paint and upholstery that looks good with the orangy look. I just posted a thread about finding a sofa that looks good with my orange oak floors. My daughter just installed medium brown flooring and it is so easy to coordinate with.

You are on the right track.

Tuesday

I have reclaimed red oak in my house, and we used Minwax English Chestnut on the floor. I love it! It does still read red since it's red oak (i.e., it's not the brown color that you would get staining white oak). I adore dark wood floors, but it does require a bit more maintenance. The English Chestnut camouflages dirt/dust pretty well (a must with 2 little ones!)

As far as the trim, it depends on the look you're going for. Generally I'm not a fan of painting over woodwork, but sometimes aesthetically, it's the way to go. A fresh coat of paint on orangey oak trim can totally transform a room. We had very dark stained wood trim in our last house (Minwax Jacobean). I thought it was beautiful, but it's definitely a *look* whereas white/cream trim is a little more neutral and flexible.

Here's a pic of the floors in my kitchen (I'm mostly on the kitchens board). HTH!

{{!gwi}}

mom@reese-Love your floors - wish mine looked like that. I just can't justify a total refinish because of the color because they are in great condition. If we could only go back and do things differently!

I am so glad to hear people start talking about English Chestnut! I think it is the best color they've ever made for deep, rich floors. We used it for all the wooden doors and the stair treads in the lower level renovation we did two years ago (previous house), and it is really lovely.
It is deep without being broody or Tudor-ish like the Jacobean can be, it has none of the red of the mahogany stains or the red-orange of the cherry or the grayness of the pecan. If I ever do wood floors over again, it will be my absolute first choice. Our floor guy used only one coat, but dampened the wood with a light spritz of water, and put it on thickly before rubbing it back. Then three coats of satin poly, and it looked like the floors had been there and been loved and cared for forever.

Another english chestnut fan here. We tore out the carpet and refinished the floors in our nursery that color. I wanted to go with a color straight out of the can so that when we got to the other two bedrooms it would not be a problem to match. The trim isn't quite done yet in here this picture but it shows the floor the best..

We replaced all our flat panel interior doors with raised paneled doors stained with Minwax English Chestnut. Here is a couple pics before and after we painted.

For some reason I thought English Chesnut would be darker. Marybeth what stain is used on the floor? Definately the pics are not orange like me last house but I think I want to go a little darker. I think I am going to play with stain on a few pieces of scrap oak pieces. Thanks for the pics they realy help!!!!

both,
Our floor is QS white oak site finished with a very light brown stain.White Oak tends to look more brown and red oak looks pinkish to me. The doors are red oak because White Oak doors were terribly expensive. That's why I went with English Chestnut it has NO orange in it. Our home was built in the 1980's. It had ugly brown pine trim and doors. We replaced the doors and replaced the trim with white but could not ignore the dark pine windows. So that's why I chose English Chestnut. I think it's not too dark and goes nicely with just about any paint color and also I think blends nicely with my cherry cabinets with brown glaze.
This is an old picture taken during construction but it shows more of floor.
lpshref="http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn109/mbstoffregen/?action=view¤t=DSCN0668.jpg"; target="_blank">

Beautiful floors posted above.

MW English Chestnut is the stain we're going to use on our wide-plank eastern pine floors and I sampled a board. 1 coat was too light, but with 2 coats, it's a nice, dark, warm brown. We also added just a bit to the MW Walnut stain we used for our front doors, and it warmed up the color while keeping it very dark.

I think kellyeng used Eng Chestnut on her floors and cabinets so you might want to search her name to see if you can find any of her posted pictures.

mom2reese- WOW! Your kitchen is awesome and that light fixture over your island is amazing!